


One

by swiftonthedownside



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 14:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiftonthedownside/pseuds/swiftonthedownside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Lupin had a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night.  It wasn't usually much of problem.  Until the year the Marauders spent Christmas at the Lupin Cottage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One

**Author's Note:**

> On Tumblr, this one is numbered as Fifteen.

John Lupin had a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night.

It used to not be much of a problem - every night, between midnight and one o’clock, his eyes would ease open and he would leave the warmth of his bed to go to the bathroom or get some milk. When Remus was home as a child, he would sometimes tiptoe down the stairs and join his father for a glass of milk. John cherished these times - Remus would always sleepily tell him about a pain the risen moon had reawakened or something he remembered about the last full moon. It was the only time Remus would talk about the moon with John - he personally thought the risen moon put him in a trance of sorts and that it was all he could think about.

When Remus went off to school it wasn’t so bad. Just quieter. And when he was home during the summers he would do much of the same thing as before. But he still missed him a lot, alone in the house.

In the November of Remus’s fifth year at Hogwarts, John received a letter from his son asking if the three of his friends could stay with them during the Christmas break. John was so excited, that all he wrote was a scraggly “yes.”

And so it was that the Marauders ended up staying with a man who had a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t all too bad at first. The first night that he woke up and some boys were still awake he went downstairs to find Remus and Sirius dozing off in kitchen chairs while James babbled on about some girl named Lily. He sat down, and let James tell him all about Lily’s hair while he drank his milk before standing and going back to bed.

The following nights were much the same, only with increasingly more dozing, and before long there were a few nights in a row when no one was awake. John enjoyed these nights, as he had already gotten a full description of Lily Evans from James - twice.

And so one night, just like normal, John Lupin padded down the stairs to the kitchen at half past twelve to find the light on. There was a glass with a few drops of milk on the bottom and two chairs out of place. He put the glass in the sink, and fixed the chairs, before turning off the light and heading up to the bathroom.

However, the bathroom light was also on, and there were voices coming from there. John peered in, curious.

Remus was standing at the sink, trying to brush his teeth or something of the sort, but Sirius was sitting on top of the toilet seat. Bothering him.

“Moony, Moony, Moony, MoonyMoonyMoonyMoony-”

“Stop,” Remus laughed, jabbing him with his elbow.

“But Moony, dearest, I need you.”

“By god, Sirius, haven’t we been over this? Not in the house.” He whispered the last part, leaning in close to Sirius. The boy looked expectant, until Remus turned, walking to a cupboard to get the toothpaste. Sirius groaned.

“Remus, that’s not fair. You can’t do things like that and then say ‘not in the house’.”

Remus laughed, and tried but failed to dodge Sirius’s grab at his arm. The other boy dragged him close, then pulled him down to kiss him.

John blinked, unsure of what exactly he was seeing, while Remus chuckled, pulling away to look at Sirius.

“Wow, you call that a kiss, Black?”

“Hold onto your pants, Moony dearest, because I’ll show you a fucking kiss…”

Remus just laughed harder, before kissing Sirius back, putting down the toothpaste to take hold of Sirius’s face with both hands.

John carefully backed away from the bathroom, going back down to bed. He could hold it.

The more he thought about it, the more John thought he didn’t mind. At least they had done their kissing in the privacy of the bathroom while they thought everyone was asleep instead of on the living room couch while everyone was trying to watch telly. As long as they kept to themselves, he couldn’t complain much. They were just fine in the day - sure, maybe they whispered a bit and sat by each other more often than by James or Peter, but at least they weren’t flashing it everywhere. They seemed normal.

He also tried to tell himself that at least their relationship seemed playful. But he wasn’t quite sure if that was a good thing or not. In his opinion, Remus took things seriously, and deserved to be taken seriously. He didn’t want Remus to end up hurt.

In the end, he decided not to say anything unless he had to. He would give them the benefit of the doubt.

The next night he got up, and avoided the bathroom in case they had staked it out as a good kissing venue. He instead headed downstairs for a glass of milk.

And lo, pressed against the counter was his son, with the hands of his lover on his waist and lips fervently kissing his. John wanted to turn around. He really did. He wanted to give them an ounce of privacy and walk back up to his bed. But he didn’t.

Sirius moved his lips to Remus’s neck, and he let out a low breath, putting a hand at the back of his neck. “Sirius…we should go upstairs…”

Sirius groaned. “Oh, Remus, James and Peter are up there. You know how they feel about us kissing in front of them.”

“Well my dad will be down any minute…you know he wakes up around this time.” However, Remus did not seem to want Sirius to stop kissing him, and tightened his hands on the other boy when he showed signs of pulling away. Sirius chuckled to himself.

“Five more minutes…”

John turned, and went silently back up to bed, half hoping that Remus would allow five minutes to become whenever they tired of kissing.

The next day, Remus asked him if he’d been sleeping any differently, because he hadn’t seen him the past few nights. John laughed and said he was just over-tired. He still wasn’t sure what he thought of their relationship. But that night was the turning-point.

That night, he was very cautious. He crept up to peek in the empty bathroom, then went down to find the kitchen light off. He relaxed, and left the light off as he went to get a glass. That was when he heard the noise.

It was just a small, whispered “Remus,” followed by a “Shh” sound. John abandoned his mission for a glass, creeping up to peer around the corner into the living room.

He didn’t see them at first. The only light was coming from the fire which was beginning to burn low. But once his eyes had registered the forms, he couldn’t have missed them in a million years. Two shadowy figures - Sirius on the floor with his back against the couch and his legs straight out in front of him, Remus sitting basically in his lap with his knees around him on either side. He was kissing Sirius in a way that almost seemed consoling. Sirius tried to pull back a bit.

“Rem-”

“Stop.” He held Sirius tighter, but he shook his head.

“Remus, I-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He kissed Sirius again. “Right now, Sirius, you are here, not there. And I can kiss you and touch you. I’d like to enjoy it before I can’t.”

They looked each other in the eyes, and John made up his mind. And he was fully in support of this relationship. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever supported anything more. Because behind those eyes was a care and a love and a compassion that John couldn’t remember seeing anywhere else before. They loved each other. And that was real love.

“Sirius.” Remus was holding onto Sirius, who looked ready to break down. “Don’t let your parents ruin your whole Christmas break.”

Sirius closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths. “Moony, I wanna go to bed,” he said, his voice breaking.

Remus nodded. “Okay. C’mon.”

That was John’s cue to leave. He hurried up the stairs, and into his room, listening for the sounds of the two climbing the stairs. And then, exhausted, he went to bed.

In the morning, Sirius and Remus were their normal selves, talking and joking and laughing like normal. John should know. He watched closely.

That night, John was almost afraid to get out of bed, unsure of what he might find. However, all he found when he opened his bedroom door was a pair of boys yelping and clinging to each other as they looked at him, wide-eyed.

John took a moment to contemplate that they had just been standing there, kissing outside of his door, then shook his head. “Remus. Take your boyfriend to bed.”

Remus blushed. “Yes sir.”

And then they all went to bed.


End file.
